SOURCE: A review of Red Beans. Publishers Weekly 238, no. 40 (6 September 1991): 99.

In the following review, Publishers Weekly praises Cruz for blending Spanish and English to express a fresh perspective on American culture.

The “red beans” of this collection of poems and prose [Red Beans: Poems] are a pun on “red beings”—characters who inhabit Hernandez Cruz's (Snaps) native Puerto Rico and hail from totally different cultures and ages. In the poet's inclusive imagination, Puerto Rican history connects with all history, so mythic figures live next door to Jibaro mountain folk. In the “Mithra” the appearance of the Persian god of light “upon the beaches / Of Cabo Rojo” transforms a multitude of bathers into the words of Chilam Balam—the Jaguar priest or scholar-sage of ancient Yucatec Indians. In his short essay on low riders—Latino versions of hot rods—Hernandez Cruz sees in customization a style of “Gothic mixed...